1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a shift knob installation structure.
2. Background Art
Heretofore, an automobile transmission shift lever device has been known as disclosed, for example, in JP 2006-219003A. As illustrated in FIG. 11, this type of shift lever device is configured such that, when a button 21 of a shift knob 20 is manually pushed and set to a push mode (pushing operation), a rod (not illustrated) is moved to a shift-lock release position, and, then when the button 21 of the shift knob 20 is manually released from the push mode (push-mode releasing operation), the rod is moved to a shift-lock position.
The shift lever device disclosed in the JP 2006-219003A employs a structure in which a guide protrusion 20a of the shift knob 20 is fitted in a guide groove 25a of the shift shaft 25 of the shift lever. In a shift knob installation process, the guide protrusion 20a of the shift knob 20 is inserted into the guide groove 25a downwardly from the side of an upper end of the shift shaft 25 of the shift lever. Then, when locking grooves 20b, 25b formed, respectively, in the shift knob 20 and the shift shaft 25 of the shift lever are aligned with each other, a pin 26 having spreadable legs is lockingly fitted into the locking grooves 20b, 25b from a lateral direction. In this way, the shift knob 20 can be fixedly installed to the shift shaft 25.
However, the above shift lever device requires the operation of lockingly fitting the pin 26 from a lateral direction, in addition to the operation of attaching the shift knob 20 to the shift shaft 25 from thereabove. Thus, the above process is far from one-touch installation. Moreover, the above process includes operations to be performed from two different directions, which leads to a problem of an increase in process time. There is another problem that it is necessary to prepare the pin 26 as a separate component.